scope:

Preface

In the last three decades, the field of gynecology has undergone significant developments, resulting largely from scientific discoveries, technical innovations, and clinical research and applications. New treatment options have evolved to replace more radical measures. Pertinent information, increasingly and readily available through the Internet and other sources, has permitted our patients to become more knowledgeable and active participants in their health care decision making. Use of endoscopic access to perform gynecologic surgical procedures has reached maturity and has gained wide acceptance, replacing more invasive approaches.

These developments occurred while the world was experiencing dramatic demographic changes. Despite the ongoing rapid increase in world population, the industrialized countries have and continue to experience a significant decline in their birth rate. Coupled with the continuing rise of life expectancy, the proportion of elderly persons in our societies is expanding greatly. Women outlive men by 5 to 6 years and will require medical care during an increasingly longer postmenopausal lifespan. With improved well-being they will remain active, at work and at play, and require gynecologic care including reconstructive procedures. Another important demographic trend is the increasing delay in childbearing by a greater percentage of women, which will augment the demand for services of assisted reproduction and new techniques of fertility preservation.

Taking into account the great progress made in gynecologic surgery coupled with the demographic and social changes cited above, this textbook was thematically conceived to provide conservative surgical solutions for conditions commonly encountered in reproductive and postmenopausal aged women by the gynecologic surgeon; hence its title Reconstructive and Reproductive Surgery in Gynecology.

Authored by a group of international authorities, all widely recognized for their knowledge and surgical expertise, each chapter critically answers the practicing gynecologic surgeon's prerequisite for sound rationale and contemporary surgical techniques to treat women with benign and malignant pelvic conditions, and those who desire to enhance and/or preserve fertility.